S
SalemGreywolf
Guest
I know this is an old thread, but let me offer my opinion based on much reading and research into the subject of nudity in regards to Christianity.
There is nothing wrong with going to a nude beach, or a (proper) nudist resort, as long as you go for the right reasons, that is, not to lust or to be lusted after. As St. John Paul said, there are instances where nakedness is not immodest, and I believe that a nude beach or nudist resort are two such places.
However, there is the potential that someone might lust after you at a nude locale. In such a place, where nudity is the established norm, only the one who chooses to lust is guilty of the sin, not the nude person, because they are merely taking advantage of the established norm.
To put this in perspective, say there is a Catholic woman who wears knee-length skirts, and she goes to the store. While there, she encounters a man who is aroused by the sight of bare lower legs. He sees her lower legs, left bare by her knee-length skirt, and lusts. Even if the woman becomes aware of the man’s sinning, she is under no obligation to stop wearing knee-length skirts because she has done nothing wrong; only the man sinned, and she did not cause that lust in him, it was already there in his heart, and her non-sinful behavior merely brought it to light. But even then, he chose to lust. He did not have to, he could have chosen not to, but he did.
So too with nudity. Nudity is not inherently sinful (or pornographic). It is our natural state, and state in which we all come into the world. Can it be abused? Yes, of course, anything can be. But like other things that are abused (sexuality, religion, guns) it is not evil of itself: the things done with it are. For example, sane people do not blame the gun for a crime, they blame the perpetrator. So, too, sane people do not blame a stripper’s body for exposing the lust in men’s hearts, but the stripper herself.
Now, to touch on morality:
The human body is good. No good, Bible-believing Christian of any denomination or church can deny that. It is good because God made it in His image and likeness, and only when man and woman stood naked in creation did God call creation “very good”, whereas before it was just “good.”
And if the body is good, then nakedness, of itself, cannot be evil, it can only be, at the very least, neutral, or, if you will, good. You do not hide that which is good, you set it on a pedestal and declare to the world its righteousness.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone everywhere should strip and go naked all the time. That would not only be impractical, but also uncharitable. In a perfect world, that is, one where Adam and Eve had not sinned, we would do so, but as it is, we do not. We live in a broken world that, in many cases, abuses the great gift of the body and its beauty in its nakedness.
Having said that, though, not does not mean that just because the world abuses the body and nakedness, that does not mean that we must react by never allowing anyone to see our nakedness or never being naked with anyone. The world says that the body is tempting and tells us to lust after it. Christians all too often agree that it is tempting and tell us to always cover it (except for certain circumstances that are hypocritical to their whole argument).
These two attitudes, pornography and prudery (or puritanism), are offspring of the same parent, who is Satan. The proper, truly Christian reaction is to state the goodness and beauty of the body, to say that no, of itself the body is not pornographic; rather, it is the very image and likeness of God, and is fearfully and wonderfully made.
There is nothing wrong with going to a nude beach, or a (proper) nudist resort, as long as you go for the right reasons, that is, not to lust or to be lusted after. As St. John Paul said, there are instances where nakedness is not immodest, and I believe that a nude beach or nudist resort are two such places.
However, there is the potential that someone might lust after you at a nude locale. In such a place, where nudity is the established norm, only the one who chooses to lust is guilty of the sin, not the nude person, because they are merely taking advantage of the established norm.
To put this in perspective, say there is a Catholic woman who wears knee-length skirts, and she goes to the store. While there, she encounters a man who is aroused by the sight of bare lower legs. He sees her lower legs, left bare by her knee-length skirt, and lusts. Even if the woman becomes aware of the man’s sinning, she is under no obligation to stop wearing knee-length skirts because she has done nothing wrong; only the man sinned, and she did not cause that lust in him, it was already there in his heart, and her non-sinful behavior merely brought it to light. But even then, he chose to lust. He did not have to, he could have chosen not to, but he did.
So too with nudity. Nudity is not inherently sinful (or pornographic). It is our natural state, and state in which we all come into the world. Can it be abused? Yes, of course, anything can be. But like other things that are abused (sexuality, religion, guns) it is not evil of itself: the things done with it are. For example, sane people do not blame the gun for a crime, they blame the perpetrator. So, too, sane people do not blame a stripper’s body for exposing the lust in men’s hearts, but the stripper herself.
Now, to touch on morality:
The human body is good. No good, Bible-believing Christian of any denomination or church can deny that. It is good because God made it in His image and likeness, and only when man and woman stood naked in creation did God call creation “very good”, whereas before it was just “good.”
And if the body is good, then nakedness, of itself, cannot be evil, it can only be, at the very least, neutral, or, if you will, good. You do not hide that which is good, you set it on a pedestal and declare to the world its righteousness.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone everywhere should strip and go naked all the time. That would not only be impractical, but also uncharitable. In a perfect world, that is, one where Adam and Eve had not sinned, we would do so, but as it is, we do not. We live in a broken world that, in many cases, abuses the great gift of the body and its beauty in its nakedness.
Having said that, though, not does not mean that just because the world abuses the body and nakedness, that does not mean that we must react by never allowing anyone to see our nakedness or never being naked with anyone. The world says that the body is tempting and tells us to lust after it. Christians all too often agree that it is tempting and tell us to always cover it (except for certain circumstances that are hypocritical to their whole argument).
These two attitudes, pornography and prudery (or puritanism), are offspring of the same parent, who is Satan. The proper, truly Christian reaction is to state the goodness and beauty of the body, to say that no, of itself the body is not pornographic; rather, it is the very image and likeness of God, and is fearfully and wonderfully made.